Julia Medyńska: Essays
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SALIGIA, or Seven Quite Serious Issues
Years ago, while reading Czesław Miłosz’s essay collection The Garden of Science, I came across a chapter titled ‘SALIGIA’. I didn’t know the word, so I dove in eagerly, and it turned out that it was a word from the Middle Ages, made up by the first letters of the seven capital sins.
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A pseudo-Baroque thriller
At first glance these are drawings from the museum portfolio of the old masters. Julia Medyńska draws on the achievements of her great predecessors with her usual flair and irreverence. She reaches for the stylistic means and historical costumes of past eras. She uses conté crayons, oil paints, and pencils. Beneath the historicising costumes, chilling scenes are played out, a baroque thriller.
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Contemporary Baroque
Julia Medyńska has complete control over her painting matter, despite giving it infinite freedom and lightness. Perhaps the word irreverence, or even flippancy, could be applied here. This is what I feel when I look at these otherwise very diverse but always recognisable images of hers.
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Not a Fairy Tale
The stories that happen on the canvas are at times chilling: naked people, probably children, with their heads enveloped by fire, like burning torches. Did their hair get caught in an innocent and careless game with matches, or did someone set it on fire in an act of sadism, punishment, revenge, stupidity?
